8/2/16

You would be appalled if you spent more than $700 on an unlocked smartphone and were later told that it was not eligible to receive the latest security and software updates that were being made available to all other variants of the same handset. That’s how quite a few unlocked Galaxy S7 owners in the US felt when support reps running Samsung’s official support account on Twitter said that the unlocked Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge which recently went on sale in the country are not eligible for upgrades.

A user had asked the official support account about the delay in the release of monthly security patches for the unlocked handsets in the US. Support replied that it was up to carriers to send out updates. Now that makes sense when you have a carrier-locked handset but it’s confusing when you’re given this reply even when you have a handset that was never attached to any mobile carrier. “Unlocked U.S. devices do not normally receive updates as they are not attached to carriers,” said the support rep, following up with another gem: “Our unlocked devices do not receive updates. This is because carriers push out updates.” It’s surprising that Samsung has people running its official support account who try making mobile carriers party to an issue that exists solely between the customer and Samsung. Given that the job of support reps is to clear up support issues it’s farcical that they are not fully aware of the technical aspects, frankly, it is unacceptable.